'The TEN CITIES' — a loose league of Greek-speaking cities east and south-east of the Sea of Galilee (Pliny's list includes Scythopolis, Gadara, Gerasa, Pella, Philadelphia — modern Amman — and Damascus), founded or refounded in the wake of Alexander and organized under Rome. They were Hellenistic in language, temple and civic life: theatres, colonnaded streets, coins with Greek legends. ⚠ Their presence at Matthew 4:25 is the point of the verse. Eight verses earlier Matthew quoted Isaiah's 'Galilee of the NATIONS', and now the crowd following Jesus includes people out of a Gentile federation — the Gospel that opened with foreign astrologers is already drawing a foreign public, long before its closing command to 'make disciples of all nations'. The ruins of several of the ten (Jerash/Gerasa above all) are among the best-preserved Roman cities anywhere.